Method and apparatus for insulating a heating wall of a coke oven battery



July 7, 1970 w. HEISTERKAMP & 2

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INSULATING A HEATING WALL OF A COKE OVENBATTERY Filed March 14. 1968 INVENTOR. W/LHELM HE/STEP/(AMP BY 5% S i /m%lame United States Patent 01 hee 3,519,256 METHOD AND APPARATUS FORINSULATING A HEATING WALL OF A COKE OVEN BATTERY Wilhelm Heisterkamp,Essen, Germany, assignor, by mesne assigments, to Koppers Company, Inc.,Pittsburgh, Pa., a corpo-ation of Delaware Filed Mar. 14, 1968, Ser. No.713,230 Claims priority, application Germany, May 27, 1967, 1,671,322Int. Cl. F23m 5 U.S. Cl. 263-46 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Theinvention comprises a rail fastened to the roof over a coke oven chamberto which are attached a plurality of movable rollers that supportdownwardly hanging insulating slabs. The slabs of insulating materialare movable into and out of a particular coke oven chamber.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Up to now, a group of six ovens have had tobe taken out of operation for restoration of a single coke oven heatingwall, The walls at the right and at the left of the to-be-repared wallwere allowed to go cold and each next adjacent wall was insulated byengaging insulating bricks together. The building of such an insulatingwall is very difiicult and time consuming, and it can be injurious tothe health of the masons working on it. Moreover, the two heating wallsthat are to be protected cool unilaterally to a considerable extent as aresult of the long time required to build these insulating walls, sothat Cracks and even substantial deformations in many cases are theresult. Therefore, the restoration of a heating wall is associated witha danger that four previously undamaged walls can be extensivelydamaged; narnely, the two walls that have been allowed to go cold andthe two insulated walls. To avoid this risk, therefore, a repair of theheating walls has often been relinquished and instead of this particularoven chamber has been filled with brick refuse.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention comprises fastening a railunderneath the top over a coke oven chamber on which is movablysuspended an insulating curtain or wall formed by a plurality ofindividual insulating slabs that are connected together. The insulatingwall extends from the roof to the floor of the coke oven chamber.

For a further Understanding of the invention and for advantages andfeatures thereof, reference may be made to the following description inconjunction with the drawing which shows an embodiment of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The drawing llustrates structure inaccordance with the invention and that is suitable for practicing themethod of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Rail 1, e.g, an I-beam, is Suspended underneath thetop 2 of the oven With chains 3` on steel supports 4. The latter areplaced over the charging holes 5 of the oven chamber. The insulatingwall hangs on the rail and it consists of a plurality of about 25 mm.thick insulating slabs 6 and reaches to the oven floor 7. Another pieceof rail 8 is screwed on rail 1 outside of the oven chamber for erectionof the insulating wall. Rail 8 makes it possible to join togethervertical strips of insulating slabs (four in the present case) by meansof clamps 9 in front of the oven chamber and then to push them into theoven with the aid of rollers 10. The individual vertical strips can inturn be connected with one another with clamps 9a. A flexible insulatingwall is formed in this way and a slab can be removed therefrom at anyplace if needed.

Commercially available insulating slabs of comparatively slightthickness can be used with the apparatus according to the invention.This has the advantage that there is still sufiicient space in the ovenchamber to be able to elfect the repairs there. It is possible,therefore, to insulate the walls adjacent to the heating wall to berestored, so that only the first cited walls need to be allowed to gocold and only four ovens have to be taken out of operation It is obviousthat the drop of production during the repairing period is maintainedessentially lower and also that two of the previously four endangeredheating walls are removed from the danger zone.

As has been indicated, however, damage no longer appears on the. twoheating walls adjacent to the repaired wall. This relies on the factthat the insulating walls according to the invention can be erected morerapidly and more simply than was the previously built insulatingmasonry, and a noteworthy unilateral cooling can absolutely not takeplace. In addition to the saving of work, the invention also results ina considerable saving of material so that special reference must be madeto the fact that an insulating wall is still available for furtherapplications after it is dismantled. If necessary, some few damagedinsulating slabs would have to be replaced. On the contrary, only aslight portion of the bricks were again usable in the previously usedinsulating masonry.

Beyond that, the invention provides a very important facility in theproduction of heating wall nsulation, since an access to the ovenchamber is no longer necessary for this purpose. On the contrary, theinsulating slabs can -be assembled outside of the oven to form verticalstrips, which are then pushed successively into the oven by means ofrollers coordinated with them. Therefore, it is recommended to extendbeyond the oven chamber the rail, which is Suspended according toanother characteristic of the invention on steel supports, which areplaced over the charging holes of the oven chamber. An additional pieceof rail can be screwed onto the rail for this purpose for the durationof the erection and dismantling and the length of this piece of railshould correspond approximately to one strip of insulating slabs. Sinceaccess to the oven chamber is not necessary, the temperature of theto-be-nsulated heating wall does not have to be lowered nearly as much,for example only to about 800-850 C. To rcduce the danger of a coolingof the heating wall to a greater extent, furthermore, it is advantageousfirst to advance the insulating wall from one side to the center of theoven chamber and then, after complete nsulation of this half of theoven, to remove the oven door on the other side and to complete thensulation from there.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for insulating the hot heating walls of coke oven chambersso that repairs to an adjacent wall can be effected comprising:

(a) rails temporarily mounted to the tops of the coke oven chambers onopopsite sides of said to-be-repaired wall;

(b) a movable wall comprised of insulating sections Suspended fromrollers cooperating with each said rail within said coke oven chamberswhereby heat radiating from said hot heating wall is partially absorbedby said insulating material; and

(c) a removable rail section that is attachable to the rail within eachone of said chambers, and that extends outside of said coke ovenchamber, said insulating movable wall sections being assembled on saidtemporary rail section prior to being moved into said chamber to form acomplete insulating wall.

2. The invention of claim 1 including:

(a) rail supporting means passing through the charging holes of saidcoke oven chamber that are con nected to said rails and that aresupported by the roof of said coke oven and (b) means for removing saidrail supporting means when said temporary walls and said rails areremoved.

3. In the method for repairing a heating Wall in a coke oven, theimprovement comprising the steps:

(a) removing from production two coke chambers on each side of theto-be-repaired wall;

(b) maintaining the adjacent walls immediately on each side of saidto-be-repaired wall at a temperature in the range of 800-850 C.;

(c) temporarily mounting rails to the tops of the coke oven chambers onopposite sides of said to-be-repaired wall;

(d) suspending individual insulating wall sections from rollers coactingwith said rails;

(e) rolling said insulatng wall sections into each one of theimmediately adjacent oven chambers on opposite sides of saidto-be-repaired wall; and

(f) removing said temporary walls from said coke oven chambers when therepairs to said wall are etfected.

4. The invention of claim 3 wherein:

(a) said wall sections are moved into said chambers from oposite ends ofsaid chambers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 228,549 6/ 1880 McDonald 263-50621,577 3/1889 Lanyon 263-50 2,179,635 11/1939 Kimmel 263-50 X JOHN J.CAMBY, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R.

